Only Human
by peace.luv.ash
Summary: Bella and the Cullens choose to go to Australia for vacation. There they meet three girls with a secret Bella is set on uncovering. Meanwhile, Charlotte pokes around the strange new Cullen family.
1. Chapter 1

It was Saturday morning at 10:00 am when Edward knocked on our door. I went to answer it and he smiled.

"Come on. I'm taking you out for the day" he smiled and guided me out the door towards his Volvo.

"Bye dad!" I called back towards him as I got into Edwards car. "So what are we doing today?" I asked.

"We are going on vacation." He said as he drove the familiar route to his house.

"We meaning…"

"All of us. You, me, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie."

"Seriously! That's great! Where are we going? For how long?" I was very excited at the news.

"Well, we were thinking, and we agreed to let you choose." Edward said, turning to me.

I tried to comprehend it as he parked and we got out of the car. The Cullen's were letting me choose where they would invest tons of money and go on vacation? That's just weird. Nice, but weird.

I tried to think of places that I wanted to go. If the Cullen's were willing to, I would like to go out of the country. Not Europe, they probably had been there plenty of times already. Asia? No… they would stand out too much there. In fact, they would stand out pretty much wherever they went. I know! Australia! I've always wanted to go there. Now I just had to get it approved by the rest of the Cullen's and we're good to go.

When Edward and I got inside, the entire Cullen clan was seated in the living room. Alice had already seen what my proposal was going to be and was bouncing up and down, excited. Edward turned to me.

"Australia?" he asked me. I just smiled and nodded.

Meanwhile, Alice was murmuring to herself about wardrobe choices for the trip. "…oh, and Rose, you and I will have to take Bella shopping for swim suits and stuff like that. Maybe we can have Esme help us or something…"

"Oh no," I said, suddenly thinking of something important. "I haven't cleared it with Charlie yet." Edward smiled at my sudden exclamation.

"Its fine, Bella. Carlisle already talked to him. He said it was fine."

Alice danced over and grabbed my arm. "C'mon Bella! We have to get packing! We're leaving in two days! I've already gotten some things laid out for you, and I just have to get your approval."

She dragged me upstairs and into her room and showed me the huge array of clothes that were laid out all around. There were clothes that I would never in a million years wear and then some so fancy that there would be no opportunity to wear them.

"Alice is there anything… um normal here?" She just smiled and shook her head at me.

"Have a little fun, Bella! We're going on vacation! Now let's see, try this one on, I wasn't exactly sure about how it would look."

She led me over to the bed and shoved an armful of clothes into my hands. Then she directed me into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. I looked through the clothes, trying to find one that was casual.

All of the clothes had designer labels on them. I shook my head. I tried all the clothes on and found that they fit perfectly. Surprise, surprise. I didn't get the point of trying them on if Alice already knew how they would fit.

I slept over with Alice so that we could leave right away in the morning. We all got into a rented limo from the airport and were on our way. Alice made sure that it was a cloudy day so that they would have no trouble. The flight to Australia was uneventful and long, nearly 24 hours straight. I fell asleep for a few hours on and off, and my dreams were normal, something odd for me.

I woke up to Edward gently shaking my shoulder saying "Bella, love, its time to get up. We're here." We gathered our bags and got off the plane into semi- sunlight, with plenty of shade all around. Carlisle got a rental car and we were off.

He had rented a large house on a private stretch of beach. It was beautiful here. The sand was a soft beige powder and the ocean was a beautiful sparkling blue. I couldn't wait to go swimming.

Apparently Alice couldn't either. "Bella!" she called from the house. "Get changed and we can go swimming!"

"okay!" I said back. I raced inside and put on one of the bathing suits that Alice had packed for me. It was a lot skimpier than something I would wear normally, but still, I had agreed to wear it. It was a deep blue two piece, with white trim. I met Alice and Rosalie outside and we ran into the surf, laughing and splashing each other. Alice and Rose looked perfect and I felt a flash of annoyance at them, but it was quickly gone. Edward, Jasper, and Emmett jumped into the waves with us, with Carlisle and Esme sitting comfortably on the sand.

We just swam around and played in the water for a while when suddenly, Edward stopped, cocking his head out to the ocean. His brow furrowed for a moment and then he turned back, looking confused.

"What is it Edward?" I asked him. He shook his head.

"I thought I just heard someone thinking…" he trailed off.

"Wow Eddy heard someone thinking, big surprise" said Emmett laughing.

Edward shook his head again. I was almost starting to worry about him. "I thought I heard someone thinking out there" he said, gesturing out to the ocean. "It only was there for a second, and then I couldn't hear it anymore."

"Well do you think anyone's out there? No human could swim that far out. Maybe they have a boat or something?" said Rose.

"I don't think so. No one decided to boat out today" said Alice.

"Maybe Eddy's finally snapped his cap." Emmett suggested, grinning. Everyone shrugged it off and we went back to playing in the water. But I couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious human mind out in the ocean.


	2. Chapter 2

The next two days passed quickly. We took up time by going swimming, shopping, and exploring the beautiful coast. Edward didn't mention the thoughts he heard from the ocean again.

I woke up to bright sunshine and smiled, looking outside. There wasn't a cloud in the light blue sky. Ugh. Sun. That means the vampires won't be able to go out.

Edward appeared at my doorway. "Knock knock" he said, grinning. He had a large picnic basket in hand and was dressed and ready to go. "Get dressed Bella, we're going on a picnic. It's on a nearby island, so we won't have any danger of people spotting us."

I nodded and got ready, then met him downstairs. We walked outside to the beach and I saw something there that made me gasp in surprise. Gleaming in the sunlight was a brand new speed boat. I got in, with Edward driving as we skimmed over the waves.

It was wonderful to be out on the ocean, going so fast, with salty spray whipping up in the breeze. We got out far enough and slowed enough so we could talk. I could see the quickly approaching outline of an island with deep lush greenery and trees.

"So why don't people come out here much?" I asked. "It's beautiful." We pulled up onto the beach and Edward hopped into the shallows. He pulled the boat up on the shore.

"There's tons of sharks around here." Noticing the look on my face, he hastened to reassure me, "Its just a precaution for humans, Bella. You know, dive here at your own risk and such. We'll be fine. Now lets find some place to eat."

After a few minutes hike, we found a small grassy clearing in the woods. It wasn't too wet here, and Edward spread out the blanket. We both sat on it, soaking up the sun while I ate the delicious meal he had made. After I was full, I wanted to see more of the island. It was very mysterious here, almost magical.

We were walking on some rocks and exploring the island, when I realized the only way to go forward was to jump the little stream of water that ran there and land on the other side. The only problem was, the rocks were steep and slippery. With me and my balance issues, I would have little chance of landing on the rocks safely.

"Bella, love, be careful" I nodded in reply and started to turn back to him when my foot slipped. I fell into a small fissure in the rocks and slid down a rough stone tunnel. "Ahhh!" I screamed in surprise as the rocks scraped my back.

"Bella!" yelled Edward. I landed in a small underground cave. There was only one tunnel leading away from the place besides the one I fell through. "Love, are you alright? Can you climb back up?"

I looked back up the hole I fell through. "No, it's too steep. There's another way out down here. I want to explore a little more." Edward dropped down into the cave and landed neatly next to me.

"That way" I said, pointing to the other opening in the cave wall. We walked through for a few moments and then emerged into another, this time larger cave. There was a glittering pool of water with an entrance large enough to swim through on the side.

I knelt down to try to see how far the opening went, and as I did, I thought I saw a tail of a large fish as it swam away. Edward, who was looking up at the ceiling of the cave, didn't notice.

"Look Bella, I think we're in a volcano!" he said, pointing up at the sky. High above us, there was a round opening like a volcano. Edward was right, as usual.

"Edward, did you see that? I thought I saw something swimming out of here. It might have been a big fish, because I saw scales and a back end of a tail…" I trailed off as Edward shook his head.

"Sorry I didn't see anything," I nodded and settled at the edge of the pool. The water was a deep, clear blue and sparkled from the sunlight. It, like everything else on Mako Island, had a magical air about it. I sat there for a few long moments, looking at the pool. I dangled my feet in the warm water and smiled; it was a wonderful feeling.

As we walked back out of the cave and into the misty sunlight, I said to Edward "We should come back here. Maybe we could go camping or something. That pool was so pretty."

Edward nodded. "Want to go into town, maybe walk around and see the sights?" he asked

I smiled and agreed.

We walked into town and stopped at a marine park to look around at the animals and such. I was thirsty so we went to a little café called the Juceinet. A nice blonde girl took my order and brought me a glass of strawberry- apple juice. Then she went to sit with another blonde girl and a brunette. I sat at the counter, watching everyone as I sipped my juice.

The girl who served me was talking with her friends and they seemed to be arguing about something. I caught snippets of their conversation as the spoke.

"Cleo!" said the first blonde. "I thought you said you got the house to yourself!"

"Sorry," said the brunette, who I guessed was Cleo. "I thought we were going to your place"

"That was last month" chimed in the second blonde. Her hair was curly and she had a slightly annoyed look on her face.

"Fine, I'll see if I can get the house" sighed the first blonde again. "Honestly cleo, my parents are starting to wonder why we always want the house to ourselves."

"Well, its not like you can tell them that you board up all the windows with cardboard and duct tape," muttered the curly haired one.

_Why would you do that? _I thought to myself. I glanced over at Edward and we shared a perplexed look. "Can you hear their thoughts?" I whispered to him. He nodded and his look of confusion deepened.

"I'll tell you later, when we're alone," he finally replied. "Bella, you might not want to stare-" It was too late for his warning though, the tanned brunette girl, Cleo, swung her head around towards me and furrowed her brow slightly. She leaned in to talk to the other girls again and I barely caught whispers of "unwanted attention" and "they're new, I wonder what they're doing here"

"Let's get out of here," I said, holding my hand out to Edward. He nodded in agreement and left some change for a tip. Casting one last glance at the three girls, we left, not noticing a pair of deep brown eyes following us out the door.


End file.
